On August the 7th I met Jean-Paul Gaster (JP), the drummer from the band CLUTCH. Maybe you know him from bands like Five Horse Johnson and King Hobo, too. CLUTCH was formed in 1991 in U.S. Maryland and they still have the same lineup since the beginning.

The members are Neil Fallon (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Tim Sult (guitar) Dan Maines (bass) and on the drums Jean Paul Gaster. The newer records are published by their own Label weathermaker.

Until now, they released 11 records and they are playing approx. 120 shows per year, which is pretty impressive.

Niklas: Hello, how are you?

JP: Fine, thank you.

Niklas: Yesterday Wacken, today Bremen, 4 shows are left in Germany for this month. How is the tour going? When will you come back to Germany after this month?

JP: The tour is going great. This will be the third show tonight. It always takes a couple days to get aggravated. But we very much enjoy coming to Germany. This is a place that we started coming to in 1993 when we first toured with Biohazard back in the day. And it’s been great and I love Germany, great food, great beer, people love Rock’n’Roll. What more can you ask for?

We’ll be back to Europe in November and December time, so I’m sure that we’ll be back to Germany. I don’t recall exactly which city.

Niklas: So it’s the first time you are in Bremen right?

JP: I think so. I don’t remember playing here before.

Niklas: But you had some time to visit some places here or only the park we are sitting in right now?

JP: Only the park and this park bench. That’s about it.

Niklas: Do you have plans to visit the city after the gig or will you leave straight away?

JP: We will leave right after the gig and we will go to Copenhagen. I don’t walk around too much to be honest with you. I have my coffee in the morning and then maybe go to a park or something like that. But the rest of the day I try to practice, really. And I spend time on the drum pad or maybe on the drums.

Niklas: Wacken, a huge metal festival. What impressions did you have?

JP: Fantastic! Beautiful vibe – we played just as the sun was setting. It was a very rainy weekend, so by the time that we played yesterday, it had stopped raining and I think everybody was really excited about that. It was a beautiful night – great energy – and I think we played very well.

Niklas: Can you compare Wacken to similar American festivals?

JP: Yeah, I think that festival in particular is so sort of metal-orientated which is something you don’t see a lot of in the States. We do have some metal-type of festivals but the audience is not big enough to support a big festival like Wacken. We’re not there yet.

Niklas: Describe Clutch in 3 sentences.

JP: I can describe Clutch in two words – and that is Rock’n’Roll.

Niklas: How does it feel to be the drummer of Clutch since ’91?

JP: This is the best job in the world! I enjoy it more now than I did 25 years ago. I love being in this band, love playing with these guys, touring and doing what we do. You know, for me this is the best thing in the world.

Niklas: So a band with a line up, which never changed since 25 years. Congrats for that. How did you do that?

JP: I don’t know. I think one of the things that really, sort of kept us focused over the years was that when we started the band, we really only had two goals – we wanted to play good shows and we wanted to make good recordings. And that was really the end of it. The idea of making a career out of music was at that time not on our radar. We were 19 years old and we didn’t care about that kinda stuff. Fortunately here we are – 25 years later – being able to make a career out of it. At the end of the day, we’re still doing the same thing. We’re just trying to put on good shows and make good recordings. That keeps us focused and it also eliminates a lot of peripheral nonsense. There are a lot of things in the music industry that have really little or nothing to do with music. So when we can concentrate on those two things, I think it cuts out a lot of the crap.

Niklas: Is the band a band of friends or more a family for you?

JP: Both, really. You know, we’ve known each other for so long. We each continue to grow individually, as players – it’s both. We’re friends, we’re family, we’re business partners as well.

Niklas: Can you describe your songwriting procedure? Is it more like jamming and then out of jamming the songs explode?

JP: Yes, that’s exactly it. We get together and we play. And that’s really the way all the songs start. But having said that, there’s no real one method as to how a song comes together. It’s not like we write a verse first and then Neil comes up with words. It could be anything, it could start with a drum beat, it could start with a lyric, it could start with an idea for a chorus. And I think that’s also part of the beauty, too, that we really try to not fall into a rut.

Niklas: What can people expect when visiting one of the gigs of your tour?

JP: I think the main thing is that we change the set list every night. So for instance last night was my turn to make a set list, tonight it will be Neil’s and then Tim and then Dan. And then we start over again. So because of that each show is individual. There are moments when we can maybe improvise a bit between the songs and that makes for an exciting show. I think the thing to remember though is when you see a band like us on stage – it’s not something that we rehearsed over and over and over again. We try to create new energy every night and so by changing the order of the songs, we’re changing the tone of the set list – it helps with that.

Niklas: I really like your music and my favorite records are “elephant rider“ from ’98 and „blast tyrants“ from ’04. After that you released 8 more records (in total: 11), which are awesome too – especially your last one „psychic warfare“, which is also the name of the tour.

How do you think about the old ones in comparison to the new ones?

JP: Well, each record sort of marks a time in the band’s development. We always make it a point to not repeat ourselves. So each record kind of represents a stage that we were in – the mindset that we were in at the time. I’m very proud of the past catalogue. Each record has its own individuality – it’s own tone. Sometimes I appreciate a record more after some years have gone by. I do think “Elephant Rider” was a very good record though. I am very proud of that one.

Niklas: What is the story behind „psychic warfare“? Can you explain to our readers what „psychic warfare“ is about and what is your inspiration?

JP: Well, fortunately Neil writes all the lyrics, first of all. My lyrics would be terrible. When we were putting the songs together, Neil was writing the lyrics for all the songs and once we had all the tunes mixed, it came time to actually sequence the album and as we started to sequence the record, the story kind of started to appear. It wasn’t intentional, but I think that’s also what gives it even more weight.

So there is a storyline and there is a character who goes on a journey and each song kind of marks a different stage in that persons journey. Again, it wasn’t intentional and the idea was not to make a concept record, but once we put all these tunes together this thing kind of formed.

Niklas: Now, I would like to ask some quick questions: Farm house or city apartment?

JP: Farm house

Niklas: Cars or motorcycles?

JP: Cars

Niklas: Trip to Japan or South Africa?

JP: Uh yeah, maybe Japan

Niklas: Meat or no meat?

JP: Meat

Niklas: Beach or mountain?

JP: Beach

Niklas: Cats or dogs?

JP. Cats

Niklas: If you could play only one drumset for the rest of your life, what would you choose?

JP: Probably, my 1962 Slingerland, that I play at the moment right now.

Niklas: What are your ideas and wishes for the future?

JP: Ah well, obviously to continue what we are doing. We were very much enjoying making music and touring – we want to do more of that and we look forward to taking some time off to write some more new music.

Niklas: Do you have some last words for our readers? Any concluding words?